Orange County and Microsoft Technology Voucher Program

What is Available

Vouchers will be issued in two categories: 1) General Purpose Vouchers and 2) Software Vouchers. General Purpose Vouchers may be used to purchase specific hardware (listed below), any non-custom software for that hardware, evaluation tools, information technology (IT) services, and professional development services. IT and professional development services must be obtained from approved providers in Orange County schools. Software Vouchers may only be utilized to purchase specific categories of software (listed below) that are published or sold by any software provider. Both the General Purpose and Software

Vouchers may be applied by Orange County schools in an amount no greater than the standard academic price, or if an academic price is not available, in an amount not to exceed the normal or standard price established by the manufacturer or vendor for such software. The following list gives examples of eligible goods and services that may be purchased with one or the other category of the vouchers:

Hardware available for Orange County schools: Any new laptop, desktop, or tablet computer for any operating system platform; Peripheral devices: printers, scanners, monitors, keyboards, pointing devices (e.g., mouse, trackball, etc.); Equipment needed for networking and infrastructure (e.g., routers, servers, wireless network cards, or wireless access points); Hardware for accessing the Internet through television sets and Internet access for such hardware for students' homes; Non-custom assistive technology devices for use by students with special needs

Software available for Orange County schools: Purchased with General Purpose Vouchers - Any non-custom software titles (any platform) that are designed for use on any qualifying hardware (see Hardware above); purchased with Software Vouchers - Specific categories of software offered by any software publisher or vendor, including: Operating system, Word processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Desktop relational database oriented towards single users and typically residing on a standard personal computer, Web-authoring, Productivity and/or Productivity Suite, Encyclopedia, Server, including client access licenses, Eligible software bundled with a computer purchased with the General Purpose Vouchers

IT Support Services available for Orange County schools: Services that primarily involve the maintenance of hardware procured through this Settlement and the installation and maintenance of software procured through this Settlement.

Professional Development Services available for Orange County schools: Professional development services directed solely at leadership development for school administrators in the use of education technology to improve learning at the site or district; Professional development services directed solely at general curriculum development and instructional strategies which utilize educational technology to improve instruction; Professional development services directed solely at the improvement of technology integration for any software title acquired through this Settlement; Training in the use of any hardware or software title acquired through this Settlement; Certification training for software and networking

What Schools are Eligible

Orange County Public school districts that have a state-approved technology plan may apply on behalf of their eligible schools. Orange County offices of education, direct-funded charter schools, and State Special Schools do not have to meet the state-approved technology plan requirement and can apply on their own behalf. "Eligible Schools," as defined in the Settlement Agreement, means all public kindergarten through twelfth grade schools at which at least 40 percent of the attending students are eligible to receive free or reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). "Eligible Schools" also include all public high schools in Orange County California that serve students from public elementary, middle, and junior high schools at which at least 40 percent of the attending students are eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals through the NSLP.

Stacy Andell is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Stacy has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues. For more information on Orange County schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/California/Orange-County/index.htmlGames 1 2
Hunting
Index
Services
Hosting
Knife Sets
Notebook Computers
Games
Desktop Computers
Music 1

Forums and Guestbooks - Are They Right For Your Website?

Are you wondering how adding a forum or guestbook to your website might help you attract and/or keep visitors?

Here are a few things you might want to think about.

Guestbooks

A guestbook is a place where visitors can leave comments about your site. Good hosting companies have part loaded Guestbook software which you can easily add to your account such as the Viper Guestbook.

Is a Guestbook right for your site?

If you are not attracting many visitors you cannot expect a guestbook to help you attract more. You may be able to get friends and family to leave nice comments about the site, but you may be disappointed that you don't get too many off the cuff comments from your site visitors.

If you are thinking about adding a Guestbook think carefully whether it is appropriate for your site. If your site is giving information about a hobby or a place, your visitors may wish to add their own remarks. We run a very successful Guestbook for a riding stables, where people like to share their experiences, or to make comments about the site (requesting more pictures for example).

We have also tried adding Guestbooks on other sites, but have found that a Guestbook will be less used if visitors are simply going to the site to find out information - the reason being that they do not yet have the experiences to share! Hobby sites are probably the most appropriate sites for Guestbooks.

Are there any cons to having a Guestbook?

Yes, there are. SPAMMERS! Spammers are the bane of all hard working webmasters. After your Guestbook has been live for a while you will find that it will get innundated by spam. This usually appears simply as a long list of websites totally unrelated to your site. Often this list includes links to porn or gambling sites, which may be totally inappropriate if your site is looked at by children.

The way to manage this is to use a Guestbook which enables you to vet all the new entries before they are posted. You may find, as we did for one of our sites, that this gets to be so arduous that you end up taking the Guestbook down. It is a real shame, but you have to weigh up the amount of extra time going through the entries is taking you against the number of bona fide and useful comments you are getting.

Although there is nothing to stop you adding a Guestbook as soon as you put your website live, you should not be disappointed if you do not get any visitors. Remember to put a link to the Guestbook on your pages reminding people to leave a comment in the Guestbook, as this will help let them know it is there. If you don't get bona fide comments, don't take it as an indication that people do not like your site. If you are offering travel information, for example, people may be too busy finding out all they can about a place they are thinking of visiting to take the time to add a comment.

Forums

Good web hosting companies allow you to use forum software for free (the popular phpBB2 discussion board which you can customise or SMF).

You will get people to visit and talk about things that interest them on a forum. The forum needs to be related to your site (otherwise it is difficult to sign post people to it), and the best forums are those that enable people to share experiences about hobbies. There are already hundreds of forums on the internet - you will need to find something which makes yours unique. Sometimes this is the luck of the draw - if you attract interesting members (i.e. people who are knowledgeable and put over information in an interesting way) you will end up with a successful forum.

Forums do not develop overnight. They take time. Sometimes it is months before you get the first few members. But again, don't be disheartened. Expect it to take time, start off some interesting threads yourself, and wait to see what happens.

As with Guestbooks Forums attract spammers. There are ways of managing these, but this does take time and management. You can make sure you authorise each new registration to your site, but you need to review your emails everyday to make sure there is as little a time lag as possibe between someone joining the forum and you granting them access. Wait too long and they will have forgotten and lost interest! You can alter the sign up scripts so that people cannot add a website address when they register. This is recommended - if people are only joining to advertise their own website they will not be genuine contributors to your forum.

Forums are a great way of letting others generate content for your website - a successful forum will grow into a community where people chat to, share information with and help each other. Search engines spider forums, and can help bring traffic to your site.

You will need to pay regular attention to your forum, as people can put on inappropriate entries. It often helps if you have a friend who will help moderate the site for you, as they may be able to go onto it to check the entries at times when you are not available.

The more successful your forum, the more work you will need to do!

So, are Guestbook and Forums right for you?

There is nothing to stop you trying a Forum or Guestbook on your website - but be prepared for these to take quite a while to get off the ground. There is nothing more disheartening than setting it all up and sitting back and then seeing nothing for possibly months (except for spam!).

But if you are prepared to wait you may very well be pleasantly surprised, and you may find that it works for you.

Consider carefully though the subject matter of your website, and think if you were visiting this sort of site would it make you want to leave a comment, or ask a question on a forum? If you are simply selling something the answer is probably 'no', as you will simply be going from site to site looking for the best deals. If you are giving information as well, however, you may find a forum useful to attract people to your site.

The final word

Forums and Guestbooks are fun, but they can be demanding and extra work, especially for the part time webmaster who already has more than enough to do. If you don't want to have the ongoing commitment, our advice is don't bother with these extras. The more successful they become, the more you will have to do!

Pat Ransom has worked in the IT industry for 15 years and is experienced with local government and company websites. Having designed and published a successful and acclaimed website in her own right the secrets of website design and publishing are now shared at http://www.webmasterproductions.co.uk.Covers
Gps
Flatware
Index
Youtube
Accessories 1 2
Games And Gaming
Youtube
Index
Sporting Goods